Borders Distributor Halts Shipments to Chain: Report

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Borders distributor halts shipments to chain: report
Sun Jan 2, 2011 7:36pm EST

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Book distributor Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc temporarily stopped shipping books to Borders Group Inc (BGP.N) after the bookstore chain said it would delay payments to some vendors, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

"When a customer of that size calls you up and says you aren't getting a check, that's a piece of information you have to act on," Jed Lyons, Chief Executive of Rowman & Littlefield, told the newspaper.

Borders said on December 30 it was delaying payments to some of its vendors. The news came just weeks after the company said it was trying to obtain new financing to avoid violating the terms of its credit agreements early next year.

Lyons told the Journal he wanted more information from Borders, and that the bookseller had previously been "paying us like clockwork."

Read more: http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BT4HJ20110103?ca=rdt

[sarcasmo]

1. I wouldn't wait long using any Borders gift cards.

[Drale]

2. I don't know how Borders can be hurting for money

I visit two stores, one by my house, and one by my school and they are both always crowded and there is always a long line.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. the one near me is more of less a homeless shelter

I don't anticipate they buy much of anything,

[onehandle]

5. I go to Borders to shop for books to buy at Amazon. Scan the UPC and add it to my wish list.

iPhones have an app for that.

It's just a showroom for me. Barnes and Noble too.

I actually rarely even go there these days.

[ret5hd]

6. just don't bitch when your showroom becomes a parking lot.

[pipoman]

8. Yea, screw them greedy locals trying to feed their kids working in your showroom

send the money to the ones who don't employ anyone locally and never will.

[postulater]

11. Borders isn't local

I wouldn't feel any worse about them going under than Amazon.

Yes, it's nice to handle the book, and yes, they do employ some locals, but Borders ran our local bookstore out of business ten years ago when they moved in. Heartbreaking.

Borders can go away, just another empty box in the mall.

[pipoman]

16. How much property tax is Amazon paying to your community?

How much money are they putting into your local economy? None and none? People are sure quick to squander other people's jobs, and piss away sales tax revenue and property tax revenue, huh?

[postulater]

25. That's true but I would still rather have my local bookstore back.

The economies of scale favor the big guys though.

I just consider Borders to be the WalMart of books. As in I'd rather not have to shop there if another option was available.

[Fruittree]

20. I buy from Amazon as well but I make it a point to also buy from the

local Barnes and Noble and Borders...Think of the people who work there and also how nice it is to be able to actually browse at books without having to sit in front of a computer.

[AngryOldDem]

24. +1

:thumbsup:

[Codeine]

21. Nice job putting locals out of work. nt

[tinrobot]

10. The shelves in my local Borders are always half full.

Been that way for a few years at least. Surprised they didn't go under in 2008 when the economy tanked.

[AlphaCentauri]

17. Same here

I love to buy Border's books at discount prices, they always have those books full of pictures, cooking recipes, maps, music, history, most of the time I get one or two books that I didn't expect to buy until I see them on the shelves.

[AngryOldDem]

23. Borders has been on the brink for a very long time, as I understand it.

Looks like the end is most likely near.

Very sad. Hate to seek booksellers go out of business.

[Skink]

4. My fear is small publishers start going out of business.

[Billy Burnett]

7. There's an iPhone app for that too.

:puke:

[tinrobot]

9. Actually, on-demand printing enables small publishers.

My sister is a publisher. She never prints a book until it is ordered.

[verdalaven]

13. Most small publishers never get their books into the big chains

Their business is on the internet.

[bertman]

12. For what it's worth, Borders is big on union busting. Shop local.

[Mark Maker]

14. Going the way of Blockbuster Video

Dead tree publishing isn't long for the world.

[PassingFair]

15. December 30TH? Right after all those fucking GIFT CARDS had been purchased?

I'd halt shipment, too.

This doesn't smell right.

[sweetloukillbot]

18. Borders has been slowly drowning for about 10 years...

I worked for them in the late 90s-early 00s and it was a great job. Fun atmosphere, employees were treated well, good insurance, great benefits (stock options, revolving store credit account, partner benefits at a time when that wasn't too common). They were anti-union, but at the time I didn't mind because they took good care of the employees - the only part-timers were seasonal and they were the only ones to not earn benefits (and even they got some additional perks the full-timers didn't). They looked for knowledgable employees - usually active college students or retired teachers and the like, assigned sections to each employee according to their likes and their knowledge, made the store fun and unique, and always made sure there was plenty of staff on hand to assist customers.

Unfortunately They never seemed to figure out how to deal with the Internet boom. I made a lot of money on my stock options for about 3 years, then everything tanked hard. The company decided that rather than try and move online (because there was no way Amazon.com would ever turn a profit) they decided to move overseas and try and compete in Britain. After that the stock started slipping, the benefits started going away (stock options first- but by that time they were worthless anyhow, then the credit accounts) then they started cutting full-timers. No longer did we have set schedules, or set departments to take care of. No longer were we worrying about making sure to have enough customer service people on the salesfloor, etc. They stopped paying the musicians who performed at the store to save money.
Then they reorganized the first time. All the assistant managers were demoted and took a pay cut, department leads were eliminated - and 5 amazingly talented friends of mine ended up quitting or getting fired in the process. I was lucky, my position wasn't quite AM level so I was actually the only one in the store to get a pay raise. But the attitude changed, the stores became less unique and by 2002 it just wasn't fun to work there anymore.
Since then it's gotten even worse, there's been at least one other reorganization, the sections are empty, the store is barely staffed and frankly I'm surprised they didn't fold already.

[blackbart99]

19. interesting tale from the inside sweetlou.......

Thanks.... :-( a sad tale of our nations decline. Probably mirrored a thousand times over around
the country.

[LibertyLover]

22. I was bummed when I heard that Borders was doing this -

Every year I get book store gift cards for some of my young cousins for Christmas. This year I happened to be in Borders picking up a board game for my daughter that they had and so bought my gift cards there. Now I feel like I have to urge everyone I've given the cards to that they should use them immediately. I hope this is a temporary situation and Borders doesn't close. I like having the ability to shop at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and independent book stores.

[MurrayDelph]

26. Two months ago, I wrote to Borders

the Northridge (Los Angeles) store looked like it was holding a going-out-of-business sale. The posters were down, there were places where posters had been that were painted a different color, and all of the Conservative-leaning books received more-favorable placement than the Non-fiction.